I'm taking the day off for my birthday today in an effort to recover from yesterday's party -- a party that was supposed to be a simple Sunday afternoon gathering with bagels and bloody marys but morphed into a tattoo sweatshop where I worked tirelessly on dolphin tramps stamps, collar rockers, and knux [in between doing choreographed moves to Beyonce favorites].

I blame Brian Grosz for his gift of what he described as "an innocent party game": Indeed, there is nothing innocent about the Tattoo Writer set and its vibrating pen shaft. But considering other well lubricated festivities where needles were wielded towards what seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, I'm just thankful I awoke today, a year older, without any permanent regret -- just a little markered smudge. I recommend it.